"conte cruel"

[Adam Walter]

Anyone have a good, concise definition of "conte cruel"? A friend
asked me to define this, and I had a hard time with it. A similar
situation arose a couple months ago when I was asked to explain the
equally elusive "magical realism," and I found that even the "literary
terms" handbooks had difficulty with that one (whereas the handbooks
that I have don't even mention "conte cruel").

Now, with "magical realism" I found small help in a few vague quotes
by writers as different as Gene Wolfe and Isabel Allende. In the end
I recommended some good reading as examples of the genre (Borges and
Murakami--though I'd now recommend Mark Helprin also, as I've just
begun reading him). However, I'm not a big fan of "conte cruel," so I
don't have much to recommend to this friend. (Isn't it an outgrowth
of the European decadents? That being another literary movement I
have a hard time getting excited about.) On second thought, I
probably do have a few things to recommend... some Jean Ray stories
and Patrick Suskind's "Perfume." A definition, though, would be nice
to have.


Adam

[Barbara Roden]

Post by Adam Walter
Anyone have a good, concise definition of "conte cruel"? A friend
asked me to define this, and I had a hard time with it. A similar
situation arose a couple months ago when I was asked to explain the
equally elusive "magical realism," and I found that even the "literary
terms" handbooks had difficulty with that one (whereas the handbooks
that I have don't even mention "conte cruel").

Literally it translates to 'cruel tale'; the sort of story that isn't
necessarily (or even often) supernatural, but which usually contains some
sort of horror (violence, torture, deprivation, mental persecution) and ends
in a cruel twist of fate. In his entry on 'The Continental Tradition' in THE
PENGUIN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF HORROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL, Michael Dirda mentions
as a 'conte cruel' Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's 'The Torture by Hope', 'in
which a condemned prisoner is permitted to escape his cell, but only so that
he may be recaptured at the last moment'. Another example is Maupassant's
'La Morte', in which a man visiting the cemetery where his mistress is
buried sees the ghosts of the dead come out of their tombs and re-write the
pious lies on their gravestones, putting the truth instead. The man hurries
to his mistress's grave, and sees written on her tombstone 'Going out one
evening in the rain to deceive her lover, she caught cold and died.'

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASY defines a conte cruel as 'a type of story named
for Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's classic collection CONTES CRUELS (1883)'. The
author acknowledged the influence of Poe, who was appreciated in France long
before he was embraced by Americans. 'Some critics use the label to refer
only to non-supernatural stories, especially those which have nasty
climactic twists, but Villiers' collection mixed fantasies and
non-fantasies, and the kinds of fantasy story that draw uniquely sharp
attention to the relentless cruelties of Fate may be conveniently discussed
under this rubric.'

Many writers associated with the Decadent movement of the late nineteenth
century produced contes cruel; Ambrose Bierce is the writer who really
introduced the concept (after Poe) into America, while W. C. Morrow's 1897
collection THE APE, THE IDIOT AND OTHER PEOPLE is called a 'significant
exemplary collection' of such tales.

Hope this helps!

Barbara

[Adam Walter]

Perfect. Thanks!

Post by Barbara Roden
Literally it translates to 'cruel tale'; the sort of story that isn't
necessarily (or even often) supernatural, but which usually contains some
sort of horror (violence, torture, deprivation, mental persecution) and ends
in a cruel twist of fate. In his entry on 'The Continental Tradition' in THE
PENGUIN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF HORROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL, Michael Dirda mentions
as a 'conte cruel' Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's 'The Torture by Hope', 'in
which a condemned prisoner is permitted to escape his cell, but only so that
he may be recaptured at the last moment'. Another example is Maupassant's
'La Morte', in which a man visiting the cemetery where his mistress is
buried sees the ghosts of the dead come out of their tombs and re-write the
pious lies on their gravestones, putting the truth instead. The man hurries
to his mistress's grave, and sees written on her tombstone 'Going out one
evening in the rain to deceive her lover, she caught cold and died.'
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASY defines a conte cruel as 'a type of story named
for Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's classic collection CONTES CRUELS (1883)'. The
author acknowledged the influence of Poe, who was appreciated in France long
before he was embraced by Americans. 'Some critics use the label to refer
only to non-supernatural stories, especially those which have nasty
climactic twists, but Villiers' collection mixed fantasies and
non-fantasies, and the kinds of fantasy story that draw uniquely sharp
attention to the relentless cruelties of Fate may be conveniently discussed
under this rubric.'
Many writers associated with the Decadent movement of the late nineteenth
century produced contes cruel; Ambrose Bierce is the writer who really
introduced the concept (after Poe) into America, while W. C. Morrow's 1897
collection THE APE, THE IDIOT AND OTHER PEOPLE is called a 'significant
exemplary collection' of such tales.
Hope this helps!
Barbara

[John Pelan]

Post by Adam Walter
Perfect. Thanks!

Post by Barbara Roden
Literally it translates to 'cruel tale'; the sort of story that isn't
necessarily (or even often) supernatural, but which usually contains some
sort of horror (violence, torture, deprivation, mental persecution) and ends
in a cruel twist of fate. In his entry on 'The Continental Tradition' in THE
PENGUIN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF HORROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL, Michael Dirda mentions
as a 'conte cruel' Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's 'The Torture by Hope', 'in
which a condemned prisoner is permitted to escape his cell, but only so that
he may be recaptured at the last moment'. Another example is Maupassant's
'La Morte', in which a man visiting the cemetery where his mistress is
buried sees the ghosts of the dead come out of their tombs and re-write the
pious lies on their gravestones, putting the truth instead. The man hurries
to his mistress's grave, and sees written on her tombstone 'Going out one
evening in the rain to deceive her lover, she caught cold and died.'
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASY defines a conte cruel as 'a type of story named
for Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's classic collection CONTES CRUELS (1883)'. The
author acknowledged the influence of Poe, who was appreciated in France long
before he was embraced by Americans. 'Some critics use the label to refer
only to non-supernatural stories, especially those which have nasty
climactic twists, but Villiers' collection mixed fantasies and
non-fantasies, and the kinds of fantasy story that draw uniquely sharp
attention to the relentless cruelties of Fate may be conveniently discussed
under this rubric.'
Many writers associated with the Decadent movement of the late nineteenth
century produced contes cruel; Ambrose Bierce is the writer who really
introduced the concept (after Poe) into America, while W. C. Morrow's 1897
collection THE APE, THE IDIOT AND OTHER PEOPLE is called a 'significant
exemplary collection' of such tales.
Hope this helps!
Barbara

I would add that the most common usage would include the
non-supernatural horror story of the sort written by Maurice Level,
Charles Birkin, and sometimes by Robert Bloch and Robert Arthur. If I
were to write a full essay on the subject it would deal with the
underlying theme that horrible things often happen to people for no
reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sort of
like life... Of course, the artistry is in making such an unpalatable
scenario into interesting reading. The best of such tales such "Blue
Eyes", "Special Diet", "In the Light of the Red Lamp", "The Animal
Fair", "The Jokester" and so on are masterpieces of the genre. The
worst are generally just exercises in Grand Guignol excess.

Cheers,

John

www.darksidepress.com

[Adam Walter]

Post by John Pelan
I would add that the most common usage would include the
non-supernatural horror story of the sort written by Maurice Level,
Charles Birkin, and sometimes by Robert Bloch and Robert Arthur. If I
were to write a full essay on the subject it would deal with the
underlying theme that horrible things often happen to people for no
reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sort of
like life... Of course, the artistry is in making such an unpalatable
scenario into interesting reading. The best of such tales such "Blue
Eyes", "Special Diet", "In the Light of the Red Lamp", "The Animal
Fair", "The Jokester" and so on are masterpieces of the genre. The
worst are generally just exercises in Grand Guignol excess.

Yes, I get the feeling--when reading contemporary conte cruel
tales--that things may have started out focused on the cruel twists of
fate, but now many a contemporary author simply enjoys the exhibition
of torturing their characters at every turn. I see it as a sort of
excessive anti-sentimentality impulse on the author's part (John
Gardner called this "frigidity").

Adam

[Charles Cunningham]

Post by John Pelan
I would add that the most common usage would include the
non-supernatural horror story of the sort written by Maurice Level,
Charles Birkin, and sometimes by Robert Bloch and Robert Arthur. If I
were to write a full essay on the subject it would deal with the
underlying theme that horrible things often happen to people for no
reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sort of
like life... Of course, the artistry is in making such an unpalatable
scenario into interesting reading. The best of such tales such "Blue
Eyes", "Special Diet", "In the Light of the Red Lamp", "The Animal
Fair", "The Jokester" and so on are masterpieces of the genre. The
worst are generally just exercises in Grand Guignol excess.
Cheers,
John
www.darksidepress.com

Hi John,
Could you identify the authors of the stories you listed above? Thanks!
Best,
Charles Cunningham

[John Pelan]

***@jmu.edu (Charles Cunningham) wrote in message The best of such tales



"Blue Eyes" - Maurice Level

"Special Diet" - Sir Charles Birkin

"In the Light of the Red Lamp" - Maurice Level

"The Animal Fair" - Robert Bloch

"The Jokester" - Robert Arthur

Post by Charles Cunningham
Hi John,
Could you identify the authors of the stories you listed above? Thanks!
Best,
Charles Cunningham

There ya go...


Cheers,

John

[b***@gmail.com]

There is a classic Twilight Zone episode where I believe an explorer in some jungle is afflicted with an insect that burrowed from one ear canal, through his brain, to the other side. Through tortuous agony he sweats,no one can help. Then at last it's over and he's survived; but a colleague studies the dead parasite(?)....it was a female, and it laid eggs as it tunneled. A gruesome death that is not outside the realm of possibility.

[Luc]

First of all, it's refreshing to see the syntagm "conte cruel" used
correctly; I used to cringe each time Marvin Kaye wrote it as "conte
cruelle" in his various anthologies as still some others do.

I recall one critic pointing out that Villiers' tales, which originated the
label, contain little blood, little terryfying supernatural and little hate.
Cruelty itself shows up rarely. He said cruelty should probably be taken as
a metaphor, the cruelty of cold and silence, of irony and parody. He quoted
"La machine à gloire" as a specific example of that and indicated that the
dedication to Mallarmé (a proponent fo the death of literature) and the
definition of glory in the tale was a further exercise in proto-pataphysical
humour before Jarry.

In that perspective Villiers is an early practitioner of "humour noir"
(black humour), so dear to the surrealists (André Breton included his "Le
tueur de cygnes" in his famous and ground-breaking anthology of the genre).

I suspect though that because of the powerful evocative nature of the word
"cruel", it very naturally led to the extension of the initial notion to
tales that are far afield from Villiers' originals, like the Grand Guignol
school in all its excesses. The best contes cruels are often those who
refrain from going that far though.
--
Luc Pomerleau, Gatineau, Canada

Groupes : alt.books.ghost-fiction
Date : Wed, 27 Oct 2004 21:48:25 GMT
Objet : Re: "conte cruel"

Post by Adam Walter
Anyone have a good, concise definition of "conte cruel"? A friend
asked me to define this, and I had a hard time with it. A similar
situation arose a couple months ago when I was asked to explain the
equally elusive "magical realism," and I found that even the "literary
terms" handbooks had difficulty with that one (whereas the handbooks
that I have don't even mention "conte cruel").

Literally it translates to 'cruel tale'; the sort of story that isn't
necessarily (or even often) supernatural, but which usually contains some
sort of horror (violence, torture, deprivation, mental persecution) and ends
in a cruel twist of fate. In his entry on 'The Continental Tradition' in THE
PENGUIN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF HORROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL, Michael Dirda mentions
as a 'conte cruel' Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's 'The Torture by Hope', 'in
which a condemned prisoner is permitted to escape his cell, but only so that
he may be recaptured at the last moment'. Another example is Maupassant's
'La Morte', in which a man visiting the cemetery where his mistress is
buried sees the ghosts of the dead come out of their tombs and re-write the
pious lies on their gravestones, putting the truth instead. The man hurries
to his mistress's grave, and sees written on her tombstone 'Going out one
evening in the rain to deceive her lover, she caught cold and died.'
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASY defines a conte cruel as 'a type of story named
for Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's classic collection CONTES CRUELS (1883)'. The
author acknowledged the influence of Poe, who was appreciated in France long
before he was embraced by Americans. 'Some critics use the label to refer
only to non-supernatural stories, especially those which have nasty
climactic twists, but Villiers' collection mixed fantasies and
non-fantasies, and the kinds of fantasy story that draw uniquely sharp
attention to the relentless cruelties of Fate may be conveniently discussed
under this rubric.'
Many writers associated with the Decadent movement of the late nineteenth
century produced contes cruel; Ambrose Bierce is the writer who really
introduced the concept (after Poe) into America, while W. C. Morrow's 1897
collection THE APE, THE IDIOT AND OTHER PEOPLE is called a 'significant
exemplary collection' of such tales.
Hope this helps!
Barbara

[Randy Money]

Adam Walter <***@prodigy.net> wrote in message news:<***@4ax.com>...

[...]

Peeling off in a different direction ...

Post by Adam Walter
Now, with "magical realism" I found small help in a few vague quotes
by writers as different as Gene Wolfe and Isabel Allende. In the end
I recommended some good reading as examples of the genre (Borges and
Murakami--though I'd now recommend Mark Helprin also, as I've just
begun reading him).

Adam, it's a personal definition, but I think it's worth noting if
only to start discussion: for me, magic realism is that subset of
fantasy that deals with supernatural, uncanny, and/or magical events
in ways that the story's characters accept as everyday occurances.

For instance, in Garcia Marquez's _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ the
characters accept that a woman is lifted up while hanging her laundry
and floats away never to be seen again, but the presence of ice is a
miracle and worthy of their close scrutiny.


Randy M.

[Adam Walter]

Post by Randy Money
[...]
Peeling off in a different direction ...

Post by Adam Walter
Now, with "magical realism" I found small help in a few vague quotes
by writers as different as Gene Wolfe and Isabel Allende. In the end
I recommended some good reading as examples of the genre (Borges and
Murakami--though I'd now recommend Mark Helprin also, as I've just
begun reading him).

Adam, it's a personal definition, but I think it's worth noting if
only to start discussion: for me, magic realism is that subset of
fantasy that deals with supernatural, uncanny, and/or magical events
in ways that the story's characters accept as everyday occurances.
For instance, in Garcia Marquez's _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ the
characters accept that a woman is lifted up while hanging her laundry
and floats away never to be seen again, but the presence of ice is a
miracle and worthy of their close scrutiny.

An interesting distinction, Randy. I do see that the magical events
are often accepted pretty readily by the central characters--the
characters that the magic is aimed at. However, I have also read some
stories where the central characters try to ignore or deny the events
and other stories where peripheral characters refuse to believe the
magic (e.g., "He has a flying horse? Don't be absurd!").

"Magical realism" seems to become a very stick term the more you
handle it. I referred to this Allende quote before--she tries to
distinguish magical realism from science fiction:

"'She ascended to heaven.' That's science fiction because the
phenomenon of a person rising to heaven is entirely extraordinary.

"'She ascended to heaven wrapped a flickering flame of silk sheets.'
Now that's magical realism because the silk sheets offer a mysterious
explanation as to why and how this woman is floating to heaven. With
such vivid imagery and tangible reality, what WAS extraordinary now
seems to be much more plausible, although the explanation for it is
illogical and strange."

However, I think this is an unfair "knock" to science fiction &
fantasy writers, who often give "mysterious explanations" every bit as
good as this one. In fact, Allende's quote sounds like a statement
from someone who hasn't read much in the speculative fiction genres.

Here is Gene Wolfe's definition: "Magical Realism is Fantasy written
in Spanish." Very droll, but not too helpful.

I've also read some talk about the magic in these works simply being
absurdist metaphors for socio-political concerns. That, in my
opinion, is a bit too dull, shortsighted, and reductive--indicating a
point of view with limited imaginative capability.

Adam

[Adam Walter]

Post by Adam Walter

Post by Randy Money
Adam, it's a personal definition, but I think it's worth noting if
only to start discussion: for me, magic realism is that subset of
fantasy that deals with supernatural, uncanny, and/or magical events
in ways that the story's characters accept as everyday occurances.
For instance, in Garcia Marquez's _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ the
characters accept that a woman is lifted up while hanging her laundry
and floats away never to be seen again, but the presence of ice is a
miracle and worthy of their close scrutiny.

An interesting distinction, Randy. I do see that the magical events
are often accepted pretty readily by the central characters--the
characters that the magic is aimed at. However, I have also read some
stories where the central characters try to ignore or deny the events
and other stories where peripheral characters refuse to believe the
magic (e.g., "He has a flying horse? Don't be absurd!").

About this last point--I just finished Helprin's WINTER'S TALE and
notice this fine example:

The character Peter Lake has been defying physics (sometimes
consciously and other times unconsciously) but near the end of the
book finds himself unexpectedly buoyant as he runs up several flights
of stairs: "...he almost floated up the stairs, and when they reached
the last floor, Peter Lake continued to rise beyond the landing, and
had to pull himself down so as not to strike the ceiling. A young
copy boy who witnessed this dropped both his lower jaw and a large
sheaf of papers that he had in his arms, and the breeze carried the
papers down the hall with the same graceful, free, weightlessness that
had been the mark of Peter Lake ascending the stairs."

Adam

[Randy Money]

Post by Adam Walter

Post by Adam Walter

Post by Randy Money
Adam, it's a personal definition, but I think it's worth noting if
only to start discussion: for me, magic realism is that subset of
fantasy that deals with supernatural, uncanny, and/or magical events
in ways that the story's characters accept as everyday occurances.
For instance, in Garcia Marquez's _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ the
characters accept that a woman is lifted up while hanging her laundry
and floats away never to be seen again, but the presence of ice is a
miracle and worthy of their close scrutiny.

An interesting distinction, Randy. I do see that the magical events
are often accepted pretty readily by the central characters--the
characters that the magic is aimed at. However, I have also read some
stories where the central characters try to ignore or deny the events
and other stories where peripheral characters refuse to believe the
magic (e.g., "He has a flying horse? Don't be absurd!").

About this last point--I just finished Helprin's WINTER'S TALE and
The character Peter Lake has been defying physics (sometimes
consciously and other times unconsciously) but near the end of the
book finds himself unexpectedly buoyant as he runs up several flights
of stairs: "...he almost floated up the stairs, and when they reached
the last floor, Peter Lake continued to rise beyond the landing, and
had to pull himself down so as not to strike the ceiling. A young
copy boy who witnessed this dropped both his lower jaw and a large
sheaf of papers that he had in his arms, and the breeze carried the
papers down the hall with the same graceful, free, weightlessness that
had been the mark of Peter Lake ascending the stairs."
Adam

I doubt one true definition is possible until the genre dries up and
blows away, or its elements are so absorbed into the larger genre of
literature that a distinction is no longer useful. Still...

In most fantasy I've read the common folk are mindful and usually wary
of magic and magic users. In the magic realism I've read, they are
sometimes awed by the effects of magic, but more usually blase -- "Huh.
Another one. I've lost more washerwomen than I can count to just up and
floating away. You'd think a few of them would have been tangled in the
clothes lines and come back to earth, but no. I must put a new ad in the
paper ..."


Randy M.